COVID-19: App will combat it

Recognising that social distancing is one of the most effective ways of stemming the spread of the disease, the Government of India has launched the Arogya Setu app, a contact tracing solution designed to help break the chain of infection and connect the healthcare system directly with the citizens.

With the coronavirus pandemic still growing around the world at alarming rates, scientists are putting their heads together to develop plans to contain the virus once the current infection curves level out and life as we know it begins to limp back to normal. With a vaccine still potentially a year or a year-and-a-half away, researchers are scrambling to discover ways to reduce the severity of a potential second wave of the virus. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease specialist at the National Institutes of Health in the US, has also warned of the possibility that COVID-19 could be seasonal and may return next year.

Recognising that social distancing is one of the most effective ways of stemming the spread of the disease, the Government of India has launched the Arogya Setu app, a contact tracing solution designed to help break the chain of infection and connect the healthcare system directly with the citizens. The app, which is available in 11 languages for Android and iPhone, also includes a simple self-assessment test and is a handy resource for COVID-19 dos and don’ts, helpline numbers, and authentic safety measures.

How it worksArogya Setu is built to take advantage of Bluetooth and location tracking technology, features that are built into every smartphone. Bluetooth devices are able to communicate with one another through “handshakes”; this is how we’re able to connect our phones to headsets and other wireless accessories. The idea behind this app is that if two individuals – who have the app installed – come within close proximity of one another, their phones will communicate with each other. If one of these individuals happens to be at risk of COVID-19, the other will immediately be informed through a notification on the app.

The app determines if someone is at risk through a process called contact tracing. In the current scenario, if an individual is found positive for COVID-19, authorities will set out to track down every other individual the patient has been in contact with in a bid to stop the virus from spreading. The process is time- and resource-intensive and also not foolproof. Arogya Setu is designed to step in here and make the contact tracing process instantaneous and comprehensive.

Contact tracingEvery smartphone owner in India would need to have Arogya Setu installed for it to be most effective. This way, everyone’s phones are constantly communicating with each other all day, every day. If you were to come within close proximity of 100 people during a day, these people are all part of your contact chain. If, over the coming days, any of these people were to be diagnosed with COVID-19, you would immediately be notified by the app and be advised to get tested or go into self-isolation because you had been in close proximity with the patient. Moreover, as you would then also be identified as an at-risk individual, all the people that you had been in contact with would be similarly notified. Simultaneously, healthcare authorities would also be notified of these potential risks, enabling them to get in touch with the concerned individuals and provide them with the assistance they need.

“It is fast, it is efficient and its pan-India reach allows preventive action to reach every corner fast. It has been created with speed and quality by our brightest young engineers. By using Aarogya Setu, we look after each of us and our future,” K. VijayRaghavan, principal scientific adviser to the Government of India, wrote on Twitter while announcing the launch of the app.

Crowdsourced monitoringThe key challenge that Arogya Setu faces – much like similar apps being developed by governments in other parts of the world – is that in order to succeed, it needs everyone within the population to volunteer to install and activate the app. Without a comprehensive network, the chain of contact tracing cannot effectively be completed, exposing holes in the system.

Government officials have been advocating its use on social media. The CBSE board has written to school principals informing them about the app, and many of them have in turn shared this information with students’ parents, but a lot more needs to be done to give Arogya Setu a chance of succeeding. The government could consider steps to ensure that more people have access to the app, such as urging smartphone makers to pre-install it on all new phones, and encouraging telecom service providers to promote the app.

Privacy concernsEven before Arogya Setu, several governments have been looking into using social media and smartphone location data for contact tracing measures, leading privacy advocates to raise an alarm. The European Union, which recently announced an initiative to develop contact tracing apps that would work across its borders, stressed that any such app would have to be compliant with the bloc’s strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that safeguards the personal data of users.

It is fast, it is efficient, and its pan-India reach allows preventive action to reach every corner fast– K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser, GoI

Aside from Bluetooth and location data, Arogya Setu also requires users to provide personal information such as name, age, gender, email address, phone number and travel history. User privacy would therefore be a concern, especially for an initiative of such a magnitude that has the potential for gather data on millions of people. Vijayraghavan moved to allay any such concerns. “All communication from the app, whether to another device or server, is secure and anonymised, and cannot be brute-forced. The app has been thoroughly and rigorously tested for security vulnerabilities by leading academic and industry experts,” he wrote on Twitter. “Personal data collected is only for tackling COVID-19 and for our fight against the pandemic.”

The app’s privacy policy states that all personal user data collected by the app would be stored in secure cloud servers. Moreover, it would only be accessible to the government as part of anonymised data sets related to the coronavirus pandemic. However, in the event that a user is identified as being at risk, the personal data would be used to contact the user and would be shared with relevant authorities, such as those in the healthcare system. The privacy policy also states that the app will retain location data for a period of 30 days and personal data permanently, unless the user chooses to delete their account or the app.

While the app’s privacy policy is transparent and does look to safeguard personal data privacy, India’s Personal Data Protection bill, which is set to be tabled for final approval in parliament, also gives government agencies overwhelming powers to bypass these policies if deemed necessary to safeguard the country’s ‘sovereignty’ and ‘security’, terms that experts have termed as too broad and vague.

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